Lady Spikers spank Lady Eagles
La Salle proved its worth with a complete fired-up roster and pulled off a shock 25-22, 25-14, 25-18 victory over erstwhile unbeaten Ateneo, foiling the Lady Eagles’ first round sweep bid in the UAAP women’s volleyball before a big Saturday crowd at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Lady Spikers outhit the Lady Eagles, 33-29, stymied the back-to-back defending champions’ attackers with seven blocks and pounced on their rivals’ sloppy reception with a whopping 13 aces as they fashioned out the surprisingly easy 70-minute straight set triumph over the very same team that dominated them in the last four meetings.
“We didn’t expect to win this way. We knew that it would be tough to beat Ateneo,” said La Salle coach Ramil de Jesus, whose wards also snapped the Lady Eagles’ amazing 24-game run.
La Salle improved to 5-1 while Ateneo closed out the first round elims at 6-1.
The Taft-based squad came into the match armed to the teeth with Ara Galang, who missed the latter part of last season’s campaign due to injury, and Mary Joy Baron leading the attack with a combined 14-hit job and skipper Kim Fajardo coming through with seven aces.
Their net defense also held top spiker and back-to-back MVP Alyssa Valdez to just 11 hits and kept the rest of the Lady Eagles in check with Jhoana Maraguinot emerging as the next best scorer with eight points. Bea de Leon groped for six hits while Madeline Madayag and Miran Gequillano each tossed in four points.
In contrast, La Salle coach Ramil drew balanced scoring from his starters with Fajardo finishing with 13 points, Galang and Baron adding 10 hits apiece, Mika Reyes chipping nine markers and Kiana Dy adding seven.
Fajardo also orchestrated the team’s play with aplomb, putting up 16 excellent sets against Ateneo’s Julia Morado’s 10 while Dawn Macandili produced 16 digs to underscore the team’s solid floor defense.
Pouncing on its opponents dismal first ball and receiving, La Salle opened the second set at 8-0 and never looked back, sending Ateneo to a 0-2 set hole.
The Lady Eagles actually rebounded and led 12-7 in the third but the Lady Spikers stormed back with a superb display in the service area and attacks to complete the rout.
Earlier, Adamson University ended its first round campaign with a two-game winning streak, hacking out a 25-22, 25-22, 25-19 decision over University of the East.